ITCM 21 - Cookieman
Inside the Competitor's Mind 21 - Cookieman I was finally going to interview Cookieman. I had mixed feelings about this one. Part of me wanted to include everyone in the community, but the other part of me was wary of this man. I’d read his earlier posts when I’d first started and had already decided to steer clear. Even when I agreed with his viewpoints, I was never comfortable with how they were stated. Then he replied to one of my articles. The bald suggestion that I needed to stop reading erotic/romantic literature incensed me, after all, it’s a free country, I’ll read erotic/romantic literature along with urban fantasy, spy thrillers and whodunits, as long as the story interests me. But once I had calmed down, I had to concede that the article in question was probably not something that anyone would expect or even want in a game forum. Still, it had fit the man I interviewed. So, I approached the dog park with a few qualms. Cookie had wanted to meet there because he had a 4 month old Australian Shepherd who needed the exercise. I agreed enthusiastically. I loved dogs and there would probably be a few to play with at the dog park. I arrived early, and went into the dog run, even though Cookie wasn’t there yet. There was an excited rush of dogs, barks and yips included, as I crouched to pet a particularly cute little pekingese. I was partial to them, my last dog was a pekingese. “Should’ve brought your own,” someone said behind me. I turned, and yep, it was Cookieman. I recognized him from his Line profile picture. Then I laughed as he released his puppy who immediately rushed into the crowd of dogs, barking and darting around in play. “Oh, he’s darling!” Australian Shepherds tended to be multicolored, this one was predominantly black with patches of brown. They were intelligent, learned quickly, and loved to play. And he was clearly having the time of his life, playing with the other dogs. He came back when Cookie called to him, and I started to wrestle it for the ball. “He’s broken every damn one of the toys I bought him.” The words were grumpy, but I thought the tone held affection. In any case, I laughed, “Hence the giant rawhide bone you got him?” “Saw that, did you?” Cookie had posted a pic of the puppy with the new rawhide bone. The bone had almost been bigger than the puppy. I nodded, still laughing, but I had an interview to complete. “Why don’t we sit down, then we can start.” He nodded, and began to talk about himself, “I’m 29 years old, engaged, no kids. I was born in Louisiana, but I grew up in Texas and Aberdeen, Scotland. I’m a geophysicist/geologist consultant.” He eyed me when he said consultant, and I struggled not to flush. I tilted my chin in defiance. His lips twitched, I hoped it was in amusement, but he continued without further comments about consultants. “I started gaming beyond the neighborhood consoles when I was 12. Began in Tribes 1, moved into Tribes 2, and then got interested in MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online game) and played WoW (World of Warcraft) from Alpha till WoTLK (Wrath of the Lich King). I play BB2 because I enjoyed BB1; initially I enjoyed the competition, now I just hang out for the laughs, because the gameplay itself has gotten rather repetitive.” “Wannacookie is derived from the spinfuser weapon in the Tribes series. It shoots blue, disc or cookie-like projectiles. I would kill an enemy with it and taunt them with ‘Wanna Cookie?’. I’ve been using the name as my online handle for 15 years, although many copycats have arisen. I suppose that was inevitable given the popularity the phrase came to have.” “I’m in LOLWut. I started in WDG and was their first member to move up from the nest. Thor and I had a falling out, I left and subsequently started LOLwut with Marijuana as an alternative to the multitude of what we viewed as ‘too serious’ guilds. Really, who needs a fantasy ranking/title system for a mobile game? Further, while we’re viewed as strictly a high-rollers guild, that’s inaccurate and more likely a reflection of MJ’s very vocal postings.” He shrugged, seeming not to care. “I don’t think f2p vs p2p is a debate. People who pay get additional features, benefits, legs up et cetera. One should never expect in this day and age to consistently compete with those willing to spend money in any game. This is not a skill game; it is a time and money game.” “Forum mods have toned down. I don’t know if I feel that way because I no longer post, have far less enthusiasm for the forums, or they have simply reined themselves in. The initial rollout of the forum mod program was a cluster f**k however.” He began to warm to the discussion and moved on to topics that apparently still preyed on his mind. “Silchanas still has not paid back the money he owes. Alex,” here he snorted and mimicked, “‘He is a valuable member of the community’ – such poorly informed words have never been before or since spoken. People need to learn the difference between posting in a manner which is meant to generate responses to the topic at hand, and someone’s actual thoughts on the manner. The forums are rife with well written, intelligent posts that get ZERO attention because they blend in with everything else. Further, the idea that Marijuana or I were troublemakers simply trying to get attention for ourselves has been rendered false. All one has to do is look at the current bunch labeled as rabble-rousers: LoD. They aren’t saying anything MJ and I didn’t, they’re simply the ones forced to carry that torch now.” He thought for a minute before continuing, “When I competed, I’d play a few hours a day. I made spreadsheets for my guild mates, and would calculate the break points for the various rankings. We’d set daily point goals to prevent putting ourselves in the position to have to play nonstop for 12 hours on the last day. In the last hours, if I were safe or not competing, I’d give my players updates every 15 minutes on whether or not they needed to keep pushing runs to achieve their ranking goals. This enabled them to save sigils once they were safely past the breakpoint, and not stress down to the last hour.” He glanced over at me, still petting his dog, and gave me a wry quirk of his lips. “That enough for you?” I smiled and thanked him. I walked away, but before turning at the street corner, I looked back to see him smiling while wrestling with his puppy. So the man could smile. Amused, I went on my way. Category:Mizy Category:ITCM